In years past we’ve delivered on what we call “Megatests” – comprehensive evaluations that validate our performance claims. The most recent “Megatest” was initiated by Light Reading to assess Cisco’s CloudVerse architecture, and represents the industry’s first and only end-to-end test of public cloud infrastructure. The first of four reports focused on the Unified Data Center, including Unified Compute (Cisco UCS), Unified Fabric (Nexus family), and Unified Management.

The second report, Cloud Intelligent Networks sought to validate the performance of Cisco’s IP NGN infrastructure in a world of cloud computing. For example, can we deliver on the scale of network needed to connect customers to the cloud? And how can traffic between clouds (data centers) be delivered most efficiently to optimize network resources? Let’s look at the results:

IP/MPLS Core & Data Center Interconnect: The Cisco CRS and ASR 9000 delivered flawless IP/MPLS performance between the data centers and clients, delivering on the massive network scale required to connect customers to the cloud. Furthermore, by leveraging Cisco Network Positioning System (NPS) traffic was dynamically sent to the data center able to provide the optimal response. No other vendor in the industry offers this capability.

IPv6: IPv6 is a foundational technology for cloud networking given the sheer number of devices that will connect. EANTC evaluated Cisco’s CGv6 solution at 80 Gbps using a Cisco CRS equipped with four Carrier Grade Services Engines to validate the performance of two IPv6 transition technologies.

Stateful NAT64: The Cisco CRS translated IPv6 traffic to IPv4 at 4 million translations per second. The same system forwarded at nearly line rate and scaled to over of 67 million translations.

6RD: The Cisco CRS forwarded line rate traffic across 1 million IPv6 RD tunnels, facilitating the migration of customer network at a high degree of scale.

DHCPv6: Restoring connections quickly is critical, even if connected to the cloud. Using our Prime Network Registrar running on a Cisco UCS we demonstrated an ability to provide IPv6 addresses to more than 18K users per second from the cloud.

Listen to Cisco Product Line Manager Mauricio Cruz discuss the importance of IPv6 to Cloud Networking and the results of the Cloud Megatest:

As the world moves to the “World of Many Clouds”, the Next Generation Internet is more important than ever. Next up will be the third report on the Cloud Megatest which will analyze Cloud Applications and Services.

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